Council invites buyers for flagship Atria offices

Edinburgh City Council is selling its flagship Atria offices next to the EICC. JLL and Montagu Evans have been appointed to find a buyer.

Completed in 2013, Atria was developed and funded by the council with part-funding from Scottish Enterprise. Split between two buildings, Atria One and Atria Two, it comprises almost 200,000 sq ft of Grade A office and retail accommodation.

It was built to the highest environmental standards which includes electric car charging spaces and an abundance of cycle spaces.

At the time it was built Atria was the largest speculative office development over 100,000 sq ft outside central London and helped satisfy the need for new Grade A office space in the city centre.

Councillor Frank Ross, convener of the economy committee, said: “Atria Edinburgh is an extremely successful development for the city. It was originally built to cross-subsidise the cost of an expansion to the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) to ensure it continues to compete on an international stage.

“The innovative funding package was intentionally designed to facilitate the lettings and eventual sale of Atria’s office and retail space on completion of the development. Based on the economic conditions being right to achieve the best possible return for our investment, the Council is putting Atria up for sale.

“Atria provides much needed Grade A office space for Edinburgh and gives the city a competitive advantage in attracting new, and retaining existing businesses. This is reflected in the extremely impressive tenant list.”

Atria Edinburgh is home to blue chip clients including PwC, Brewin Dolphin, Aon, IBM, the UK Green Investment Bank, the Law Society of Scotland, Alliance Trust, Lothian Pension Fund and the EICC itself. Retail occupiers include the Co-operative Food and Café Klaris. On average, the income is secured for in excess of 15 years.

Ross Burnett, partner at Montagu Evans, said: “Atria is a fantastic development and has excellent sustainability and design credentials. We believe this is the highest profile investment to come to the market in a long time.”

Colin Finlayson, director at JLL, added: “The sale of Atria represents a rare opportunity to purchase a best-in-class development and it comes at a time when investor demand is strong from both the UK and overseas. We are confident we will be able to generate significant interest.”